Thomas C. Fleming (1907-2006) was the nation's oldest and longest-running black journalist. For 61 years he wrote each week for the Sun-Reporter, San Francisco's African American weekly, which he co-founded in 1944. In 1997 he received the Career Achievement Award from the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California. When he died, his memorial service was held in San Francisco City Hall.

Max Millard worked closely with Fleming for two years at the Sun-Reporter, and later spent 100 hours interviewing him on tape. Millard then transcribed and fact-checked the new material and blended it with Fleming's original writings to create the 86 columns on this page. Fleming did the final editing, and all the words are his.